All Teabags are NOT the Same

/ / Published in Lessons on Tea, Tea

Contrary to popular opinion, teabags do not necessarily make a bad cup of tea.

Teabags are here to stay, convenience being their main advantage.

The quality of the tea made by a teabag depends on the QUALITY OF THE TEA IN THE TEABAG.

The majority of teabagged teas sold in supermarkets have inferior teas because of price competition.

There has been a recent marketing campaign to promote pyramid style tea bags using larger leaf teas.

However the reality is that large leaf teas do not make a stronger cup of tea and they must also be infused for at least four minutes.

Studies have shown that the average teabag user only infuses a teabag for less than a minute.

This is why the more expensive option to use large leaf teas in pyramid teabags will probably eventually go the way of previous teabag fads – round bags, drawstring bags, etc.

Almost 40 years ago I realised that the quality of teas being imported into Australia were of poor quality. The proliferation of teabags and a pricing regime enforced by the major supermarket chains had led to a noticeable drop in quality. Elmstock Tea Company was born out of this background in 1979. I had started my working life at 17 in the Tea Plantation/Accounts Department of a large company in Colombo. My family had connections to the tea trade and prior to that coffee and sugar plantations in Ceylon since the 1840s – an unbroken and direct link of over six generations. Many of the plantations started by or managed by my great grandparents still produce some of the teas we buy today! After migrating to Australia in 1972 I graduated from Curtin University and qualified as an accountant (CPA). I worked and managed large public companies involved in the wool trade for many years and was also involved with the listing of public companies on the ASX. Elmstock have been wholesaling premium quality teas and herbal infusions sourced from the best plantations for almost 40 years. We decided over twenty five years ago not to deal with the major supermarket chains as we did not want to compromise tea quality and revert to the ‘mediocrity of the pack’ which is entirely price driven.

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